


University!AU

by mithrel



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Blanket Permission, Coming Out, Gay Panic, Homophobia, M/M, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-12
Updated: 2010-03-17
Packaged: 2017-11-13 18:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I just caught Dean necking with his math tutor!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Can't Unsee

Sam opened the door to his apartment and then sagged against it. He needed brain bleach. He needed to burn his eyes out.

“Sam? What’s wrong?”

He looked over to see Gabriel peering at him in concern. “I _knew_ going to the same college was a mistake!”

“Hmm?”

“I just caught Dean necking with his math tutor!”

A slow smirk spread over Gabriel’s face. “Did you? Good.”

Sam stared. “In case you’ve forgotten, _your brother_ is Dean’s math tutor!”

Gabriel snorted. “Yeah, I know.”

“ _Brother!_ ” Sam said, waving his arms around.

“Oh, lighten up, Sammy. I know for a fact you’re not homophobic. You’d be a hypocrite if you were. And the entire reason Cas offered to tutor Dean in the first place was because he’s been mooning over him all semester, but jocks don’t notice nerds.”

“Well, he’s noticing him now,” Sam muttered.

“Good. He needs to broaden his horizons.” Gabriel leered suddenly. “I just bought some strawberries and there’s chocolate syrup in the fridge. Will that erase any nightmare-inducing images?”

Sam scowled, but at Gabriel’s wheedling look he sighed and said, “I guess.”


	2. For What It's Worth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nerds and jocks don’t hang out together. There’s nothing he can do about that.

When Sam and Dean went home for a few days over spring break Dean was quiet.

Sam reflected ruefully that while college wasn’t quite as bad as high school when it came to cliques, it was in some cases. Sam hung with the people involved in things like the debate team, ROTC, the political clubs, the college equivalent of those on the student council: not quite geeky enough for the jocks to ostracize completely, and not too mainstream for the nerds to look down on.

Gabriel was one of those rare people who was popular with everyone. But Dean…Dean was a Jock. He always had been. His varsity letter jacket still hung in his closet, he went to every football game, and even some of the basketball games and slept with every (pretty) girl who wiggled her hips at him.

Cas was a Nerd. He wore a suit all the time, his hair was always a mess, and he had a freaking pocket protector. Sam could imagine him playing D&D in high school, and hoping for a job as a computer programmer.

And the _only_ times Nerds and Jocks mixed was when the former tutored the latter (the stereotype off “dumb jocks” often holding true, and many of them here on sports scholarships) or when the latter tormented the former. Something like this…well it was almost unheard of.

“You OK?”

Dean started at the words, the first spoken in ten minutes. Their mother lived forty minutes away, too far to go home on weekends. “Fine.”

Sam debated bringing it up. On the one hand, they were in the car, so Dean couldn’t stalk off. But he could fume the entire time they were gone. Fuck it, Sam decided. “Is it Cas?”

The car swerved slightly. “Cas? What about him? No!”

Ah-ha. Guilty conscience. “I saw you kissing him. Sorry.”

Dean was angry enough that he took his eyes off the road to glare at him. “You what?”

“Dude, eyes on the road!” As Dean turned back, Sam continued. “I’m sorry! You borrowed my copy of The Inferno, remember? I’m going to reference it in a paper, so I needed it back.”

Dean glared again, quickly this time. “Still not cool.”

“There wasn’t a sock on the door,” Sam snarked back. He’d had enough of Dean’s attitude. “And, honestly, why do you think I care? You know about me and Gabe.”

Dean muttered something about freaks and heredity. Sam pretended he didn’t hear. Dean still didn’t like Gabe, although he usually refrained from bashing him where Sam could hear. It had taken him a long while to overcome the stigma of having “a gay baby brother,” and he’d been kinda floored, since Sam had dated girls in high school.

“I need to get another math tutor.”

“Why?” Sam wanted to know.

“Because Cas…he…every time he’s in the room I can’t concentrate!” Dean finished in a rush.

Sam nodded. “So get another math tutor and hang out with Cas other times.”

“I can’t _hang out with_ him,” Dean said, aghast. “He’s a nerd!”

Sam pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh, so you’re willing to use him for his brains and have sex with him, but you can’t acknowledge him outside that? That’s classy, Dean.”

“Not my fault! ‘S just the way things work!”

Sam was silent for the rest of the ride.

***

When classes started up again Gabriel cornered him. “Your brother,” he spat, “ _dumped_ my brother.”

“I know, I know!”

“‘It’s not a good idea for me to be seen with you, and I don’t think you should tutor me anymore,’ that’s what he said.”

Sam winced. It figured Dean would be blunt. “Gabriel…”

“Don’t ‘Gabriel’ me! Do you _know_ how wrecked Cas is over this? Especially since all three of us know Dean’s still banging the cheerleader?”

Sam waved his hands. “I don’t think he did it because he wanted to!”

“Eh?”

“Look, when I started dating guys Dean’s teammates gave him crap. He had to play even harder to prove he wasn’t a fag. If they find out he’s with Cas…”

Gabriel snorted.

“Plus I don’t think Dean’s sorted it out himself yet. You always knew what you were, but most people have to come out to themselves, and Dean hasn’t yet.”

“I’m gonna TP his lawn. Or call the cops on his apartment because there’s weird-smelling smoke coming out of it. Or…”

Sam cut off Gabriel’s list of possible revenge. “Look, just…let me talk to him OK?”

***

“I knew you were an asshole, but I never knew how much.”

“Excuse me?” his brother demanded.

“First you dump Cas–”

“Hey, I didn’t ‘dump him.’ We were never together!”

“Which makes it better how, exactly?” Sam demanded. “And then I find out you’ve been banging Melinda Watson? What the hell, Dean?!”

“She’s hot.”

Sam huffed in exasperation. “Did you ever think how Cas would react to this?”

“He’s fine!”

“No, he’s _not_ fine!” Sam shot back. “Gabriel says he’s wrecked. He’s been mooning over you all semester!”

Dean blinked. “He has?”

Sam nodded. “Why do you think he agreed to tutor you in the first place? And then you use him and dump him? How’s he supposed to feel?”

“Oh man. Oh man, I…I didn’t know.”

That was no excuse, but Sam figured Dean was beating himself up enough already. “Why did you do it anyway?”

“If the team found out…”

“OK. Assume for a moment the team would be OK with it.”

“They wouldn’t be!”

“But assume they would be. Would you still not want anything to do with him?”

“I…I’m not gay!”

Sam snorted. “That’s obvious. You’ve slept your way through the entire cheerleading team.”

Dean smirked, then sobered again. “So what the hell is wrong with me?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Nothing is wrong with you! You’re not straight, obviously, you’re not gay, you might be heteroflexible…”

“Hetero-wha?”

“Never mind. Look, I figure you’re mostly straight, but you still can be interested in guys. Say a one on the Kinsey Scale.”

“You know I have no idea what you’re talking about, right?”

“Look, just…assuming no one objected, would you?”

“I…I dunno.”

“Look, Dean, you should talk to Cas. He deserves that much.”

His brother sighed. “OK.’

“You promise?” Sam pressed him.

“I promise!” Dean snapped.

“Also I thought you ought to know Gabe is planning revenge.”

Dean groaned. “Great, just great. He was the one who got half the freshmen put on disciplinary probation before they realized what had happened, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

Dean groaned again.

***

He’d promised Sam he’d talk to Cas, and he was going to. He was. Just not right now. He finally snuck into the library and went to Cas’ usual table.

He was there, with a couple of his friends. Dean gulped, but went over.

Cas’ eyes narrowed when he saw him. “What do you want?”

“My new math tutor sucks. I’m gonna flunk trig.” Not true, but he needed an excuse.

“Why should I care?”

Dean floundered a moment. “Because I want you back.”

Cas’ eyes widened, but he said, “Be right back,” and got up from the table.

When they were in a secluded corner he demanded, “Just what exactly did you mean by that?”

“I treated you like shit, Cas, and I’m sorry. Sam told me you…” he stopped. “Anyway, you didn’t deserve that.”

“So you want me to tutor you again so you won’t flunk math. I don’t think so.”

“No! I…I mean, sure, if you want, you were a good tutor. But I meant…”

Cas snorted. “If you can’t even say it why should I believe it?”

Dean sighed. “I don’t even know what we had–”

“You never wanted to talk about it. Whenever I tried to get an idea of boundaries or rules you’d bolt.”

“I know and I’m sorry. I didn’t want to think about it. This is kind of terrifying for me.”

Cas nodded.

“Like I said, I don’t know what we had, but it was good, and I want to have it again.”

“While you diss me to your friends and bang half the women on campus? No thanks!”

“Cas…”

“No! Not good enough, Dean!” and he stalked off back to his friends.

***

Dean thought about it, and realized there was only one thing he could do. He wanted Cas back, and Cas wanted to be acknowledged.

He braced himself and went looking for Gabriel.

He found Gabriel lounging in the quad, but he sat up as soon as he saw him. “The fuck do you want, Winchester?”

“I need your help.”

“With what?”

“Convincing Cas to go to the next football game.”

Gabriel’s mouth twisted. “What for?”

“I want to make a gesture.”

Gabriel cocked his head. “OK, I’ll see what I can do.”

“You and Sam can come too.”

Gabriel nodded.

***

“Hey, bro.”

Cas looked up from his biology textbook, wondering what his brother was doing in the library. “Gabriel.”

Gabriel took the book from him and flipped through it, snorting. “Seriously? How has your brain not imploded?”

Cas sighed. “Just because you don’t worry about passing your classes…”

“There’s nothing wrong with a 2.7 GPA.” He set the book down again. “You need to lighten up, have some fun. We should go out drinking.”

“No.”

“I can see about getting you laid. There’s this girl…”

“No!”

“Alright fine, how about a football game?”

Cas froze. “Why would I want to go to a football game?”

“So you can make fun of Dean when he screws up?”

“He won’t screw up,” Cas said, returning to his book.

“Fine. Have it your way.”

***

A few days later Sam caught up with him. “Hey, Cas!”

He paused, turned around. “Sam.” He hadn’t talked to Sam much, even though he was Gabriel’s boyfriend.

“Hey, Gabe and I are going to the football game tomorrow, you want to come?”

“Gabriel already invited me and I said no.”

“Please? Dean wants you to come.”

“Why would I do anything Dean wants?”

“You’re being too hard on him, Cas. He’s trying.”

“Not hard enough.” He didn’t want anything to do with Dean.

So when he found himself in the stadium the next afternoon he was as confused about it as anyone.

He saw Sam and Gabriel down near the front, and made his way over to them. Gabriel was eating a chocolate chip cookie.

Sam looked at him. “You came!”

“I don’t even know why.”

The game started then. The other team pulled ahead early, despite the fact that Dean scored a touchdown. Their team scored some in the third quarter, but going into the last quarter the score was 16-12.

There were fifteen seconds on the clock, and their team had the ball. They were twenty yards from the goal line.

Dean grabbed the ball, dodged through the other team and set the ball in the endzone just as time ran out.

Fans ran onto the field, swamping him and the other players, but Dean fought through them and made his way to Cas.

He pulled him onto the field, into the center away from the crush of people and kissed him.

Cas flailed. This was the last thing he’d expected. People noticed. The murmuring started, followed by boos and a few cheers. Cas tried to pull away, but Dean wouldn’t let him.

When they finally broke apart he saw Sam and Gabriel applauding. Dean glared at him. “Satisfied?”

Cas felt a smile spread over his face and he kissed Dean again.


	3. Seriously?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fallout from the kiss.

Dean’s been miserable since the last game. The team’s going so far as to lose points rather than pass to him. People stare at him, and start talking as soon as he passes them.

He can’t hang out with any of his usual friends; they don’t want anything to do with him now that he’s “a fag.”

He tries hanging out with Cas’ friends, but it’s awkward. He has no clue what they’re talking about most of the time and doesn’t want to ask, and they’re nervous when he’s around, so he gives up.

He doesn’t want to hang out with Sam’s friends–that’s just pathetic.

He walks disconsolately off the field after another dismal practice. He can’t quit the team or he’ll lose his scholarship, and he can’t get in fights with his teammates or he’ll get _kicked_ off the team.

Someone shoves him, and he stumbles, turning around to see the center, Wayne Ellsworth, sneering at him. “Why are you even here, fairy? Go join the theater club!”

“Leave him alone!”

Dean looks over in surprise, to see a girl squaring off with Wayne. She’s five inches shorter than him and a hundred pounds lighter. He sneers at her. “Yeah? Or what?”

“I’ll file a grievance. Might even go all the way to the ACLU. How do you think your prospects look for playing football after college if people know you’re a homophobe?”

He glares at her, but, to Dean’s amazement, stalks off. “Thanks. Of course now they’ll be saying that I’m not only a fag but that I need to be rescued by girls.”

She snorts. “Don’t worry about him. He’s an asshole.”

“You don’t need to tell me.” He sticks out his hand. “Dean Winchester.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m Cindy Harper. I write for the Advance,” she replies, shaking his hand.

“Yeah?” Dean knows a few of Sam’s friends are involved with the college paper, but he seldom picks one up.

“Uh-huh. And I’ve been talking to people, since Saturday. Most of them either don’t care about what you did, or else they admire you for having the guts.”

Dean snorts. “Yeah, too bad the ones that I have to deal with on a daily basis are the ones raised by Chuck Norris.”

She laughs softly. “It’ll get better. I could do a piece on you, maybe. You know, an interview, get some opinions from the other students, the coach…”

“Oh, hell no!” Dean cuts her off. “Thanks, really, but don’t make it worse than it already is.” Coach Barnes had pulled him aside a few days ago and told him that if he didn’t “get it together” he’d have to rotate him out. Dean hadn’t pointed out that the problem was with the other players, not him.

“OK, OK, it was just an idea! Hey, we should hang out sometime. Bring your boyfriend.”

Dean barely manages not to flinch at the word ‘boyfriend.’ “Yeah, sure. I gotta go, I have class in half an hour.”

“OK, see you!”

***

He meets Cas in the dining hall for dinner. “Hey.”

Cas takes one look at him and asks, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Dean says quickly. Too quickly. “I just had a hard day is all.”

“Dean.”

He sighs. “I…the guys on the team are…well, they’re being douchebags, is all. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Because of me,” Cas says quietly, his face distressed.

“Hey, no, don’t worry about it. It was my decision, and it was totally worth it.” And it was, despite the hell his life has been recently, because it means he gets Cas.

Cas smiles slightly, but still looks troubled.

***

When Dean next sees Sam his brother brings it up. “Cas tells me you’re getting picked on.”

Dean glares. “I am not getting _picked on!_ This isn’t middle school!”

“So why have you been coming straight home after practice for the past week? You used to hang out with the guys.”

“I got a test coming up.”

“Uh-huh. I’ve been by the field, Dean. I don’t know much about football, but it seems like it makes more sense to pass to the guy who’s got no one around him than a guy in the middle of people playing as the other team. Except when the guy’s you.”

“Look, just drop it, OK?”

Sam sighs, but nods.

***

Dean has started hanging out with Cindy and her friends, although he’s adamant that she’s _not_ using him for her next story. “It’s starting to blow over. I don’t need to remind everybody.”

He’s suspicious, though, so he takes to picking up a copy of the _Advance_ and flipping through it. When he’s done he usually gives it to Cas, since he enjoys doing the Sudoku.

But one day he doesn’t even need to open the paper. Blazoned on the front in inch-high letters are the words: _GAY ATHLETES: TALENT OR TROUBLE?_

He stares at the headline for a full ten seconds before reading the actual article.

_Two weeks ago Hawks running back Dean Winchester stunned the school by kissing a guy after the team’s upset of the Cougars. I took a poll of student attitudes, and caught up with Sam Winchester to discuss his brother and the possible repercussions of his action._

Dean stares. She interviewed _Sam?!_ He looks at the poll. 48% of the students polled said it was fine for athletes to be gay and 39% said gays shouldn’t play sports, whether or not they were out, while 13% said they didn’t care one way or another.

Then comes the interview. _Hi, Sam. Thanks for agreeing to this interview._

_Glad to do it._

_What do you think about your brother kissing a guy?_

_Well I’m gay myself, so I can’t throw stones. *laughs* Really, I don’t care. As long as he’s happy._

_Can you tell me how the team has reacted to Dean kissing a guy on the field?_

_Not well. Dean had a hard time winning acceptance from the team because of me. Now that he’s come out himself it’s worse._

_What do you mean?_

_They’re not letting him play, even if he’s on the field. They might even purposely lose the game if Dean’s the only one who can win it._

_Anything else?_

_They’ve been harassing him, calling him ‘fag’ and ‘queer.’_

_Do you think this article will help with that?_

_I dunno. Maybe_

Dean stares. Is he _nuts?!_ How is exposing them as a bunch of homophobic assholes going to _help?_

It gets worse. _Members of the Hawks could not be reached for comment._

Dean groans. He just _bets_ they couldn’t! Damn Cindy, and Sam, and whoever the idiot was who invented newspapers. At least they hadn’t interviewed Cas.

He stalks across the quad to Sam’s dorm and storms inside. “What the _hell_ is this?!”

Sam jumps, then cringes when he sees the paper Dean’s brandishing. “I–”

“‘Dean had a hard time winning acceptance from the team because of me. Now that he’s come out himself it’s worse’? Sam, you _made_ it worse by telling the whole school what assholes they are. They’re really going to hate me now!”

“People had to know! This kind of thing shouldn’t be allowed to go on!”

Dean growls, throws down the paper, and stomps out.

***

He finally catches up with Cindy. “What the _hell_ do you think you’re doing?! I told you not to write about this!”

“No, you said I couldn’t interview you. I didn’t. I could do a follow-up piece, though. _The Secret Pain of Dean Winchester…_ ”

“I’ll show you pain!” Dean growls. “You’ve just fucked over my athletic career, you know that? I was dealing with it!”

“No, you were ignoring it.”

“What was I supposed to do? Expose their douchebaggery to the school? They loved me even before your little exposé, now it’ll be hell!”

“Oh stop being so melodramatic!”

“I am _not_ being melodramatic! You don’t know what it’s like! And no, I’m not going to tell you. If you publish any of this I’ll claim libel.”

She blinks. “Libel? Seriously?”

“OK, maybe not libel, but Sam’s studying law, he’ll find something!”

Cindy stares at him. “Fine! See if I try to do you any favors from now on!”

***

Just like he’d thought, his teammates are pissed. He starts arriving at practice an hour early to avoid being harassed in the locker room beforehand, but there’s nothing he can do about afterwards.

One day Elliot Kemp is waiting for him when he gets there. Dean tenses, looking around, but no one else is there.

“Relax, I’m not gonna do anything.”

“Yeah, sure. When you and your buddies have been doing everything short of grievous bodily harm to make me quit!”

“Hey, I never did anything!”

Dean thinks back. He’s right. Wayne, Bryan, Logan, they all were harassing him, but Elliot never did. “Huh. Guess so.”

“Look, what they’re doing is really shitty. You won that game for us, and it wasn’t the first time. We lost last week and they’re gonna throw tomorrow’s game too rather than have you help them win.”

Dean shrugs. “What can you do?”

“Still, it’s not fair.”

“Why are you telling me this? Why not tell them?”

Elliot pales. “No, no way! Then they’d–”

“Start treating you the same way they’re treating me. Glad to know you’re willing to stand up for your principles,” Dean says and stomps out. _Asshole._

It’s not really Elliot’s fault, he knows that. College is still a popularity contest, and athletes get bonus points. That doesn’t make it suck any less though, that the one person on the team who doesn’t think he’s a freak is a coward and a hypocrite.

***

He gives up showing up early, since it isn’t doing much good. One day he gets to the locker room to find it in an uproar.

“Dammit, who took ’em?” Luke is snarling.

“I dunno, man!” Elliot says.

“What’s going on?” Dean demands.

“Winchester! You took ’em, didn’t you!”

“Wha-?”

“Luke, man, he just got here,” Elliot says. “And you had ’em last night, didn’t you? Dean couldn’t’ve taken ’em. Maybe you left ’em at home.”

Luke grumbles, but reluctantly agrees.

“What’s going on?” Dean hisses to Elliot.

“Luke lost his shoulder pads and he’s convinced somebody took ’em.”

“Don’t look at me, I just got here!”

If that had been all Dean would have figured it was a fluke, but things kept happening, things that had to be deliberate.

He only sees the aftermath, since it only happens when he’s not there, which is lucky, because they still try to blame him. Elliot usually manages to persuade them he didn’t do it, which Dean’s grateful for, but now they’re suspecting him.

After Tristan got itching powder in his jockstrap and Cameron’s skin turned blue after using what he thought was his facepaint their teamwork really starts falling apart. Coach Barnes spends an hour lecturing them on their shitty gameplay.

Dean has no clue who’s behind it, until it finally clicks, and he has his biggest _duh_ moment in a long time.

He goes hunting for Gabriel.

***

When he finds him, he demands, “Are you behind this?!”

“Yeah,” Gabriel says, lounging on the base of a statue of the college’s founder in the quad, not even asking what he means.

“Why?”

Gabriel sits up, his expression suddenly fierce. “You might not have noticed, but I’m protective of my little brother.”

“So?”

“You’re his boyfriend.”

Dean doesn’t even flinch this time, even though he and Cas haven’t discussed that. “So? I don’t need your help!”

Gabriel snorts. “Oh, because you’re doing _so_ well on your own!”

“How are you doing it anyway? I never see you anywhere near the locker room.”

Gabriel smirks. “I have my methods.”

“But how will _embroidering flowers_ on their uniforms make them accept me?”

He smirks again. “It won’t. But doesn’t it make you feel better?”

Dean laughs reluctantly. “Guess so. But, look, you gotta stop. They’re at each others' throats and the coach is apoplectic.”

Gabriel sighs. “OK, fine, no more pranks.”

***

The fallout from the article dies down, Dean manages to help the team score a few times (since Coach Barnes got fed up with them “ignoring the running back, for fuck’s sake!”), and ultimately, with Elliot’s half-reluctant help, gets them to put up with him again.

He’s still not hanging out with them though. He’d introduced Cas to Cindy and her friends, after he finally forgave her, and Cas hangs out with them occasionally, but he has his own friends too.

One night as they’re studying together Cas looks up at him. “Do you regret it?”

“Regret what?” Dean asks in surprise.

“Being with me, being my boyfriend.”

“Am I?” Dean blurts out before he thinks. “Your boyfriend, I mean.”

Cas shifts uncomfortably. “I…not if you don’t want to…that is, I just thought–”

Dean cuts him off. “No, babe, I don’t regret being your boyfriend one bit.”

Cas’ smile lights up his whole face.


End file.
